Leadership Guide

Leadership Guide

Setting Forth The Effort to Begin as a Leader.

Conducting Meetings in a reasonable manner:

Begin Starting out as a good leader by conducting your meetings.

1. Begin with the Pledge
2. Ask/Conduct a Prayer
3. Make sure all Fellow Members has Signed in
4. Start out by going over the minutes of your last meeting
5. Go Over any new Business you as a leader needs to conduct
6. Grant Permission To Your Advisors To Go Over any new business they have
7. Grant Permission for your Explorers/Juniors To Speak
8. Set Forth the Next Meeting/Training Date.

Begin With The Pledge
Whether a FireFighter or an Explorer, Starting off your meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance gives great respect to your country.

Ask/Conduct a Prayer
After the Pledge, Ask someone in your meeting room, or Conduct a prayer yourself. This is great moral respect, and gives hope & love to God when on a call.Make Sure Fellow Members has signed in
Having a Sign-in Book Helps you and your advisors keep up with who all has attended the meetings. So Before beginning the minutes, Make sure everyone that has attended this meeting, Has signed in.
Going over Minutes of the Last Meeting
Begin the meeting by going over the minutes of your last meeting. As Some of your members may have been absent the last meeting, Keep them up to date. Also, This is a great reminder for all members. This will help your members remember important dates etc. (ex. Live Burns, Special Training, Courses, etc etc.)
Go Over New Business (Leader)
As the Leader of your Post, If you should have any new business to be said, Such as: (New Members, Voting On New Members, etc etc.) This is the time to do it.

Go over New Business (Advisor)
This is the time to hand over the mic to your Advisor. As He/She may have more important business to go over. Lectures, Or Business said to him/her by your Chief. Your Advisor Does run this show, So give him/her the up most respect, and all the time he/she needs to finish.

Explorers/Juniors Permission to Speak:
To Conduct your meetings faster and better, Your Juniors should not speak until given the permission to. This is now the time to allow them to have a say so in any of the said business (Leader or Advisor), Conducted in this meeting. As itís their program, Let me have their time to speak in a reasonable manner, and time. (No Cussing, yelling, etc etc.)

Set Forth The Next Meeting/Training Date
This is time to remind all of your members when the next meeting/training date is.

Leadership On a Call

There are many possibilities that the advisors let the Juniors/Explorers Run Calls.
Many Leaders of The Program tend to get out of hand, and try to be the big boss.
When the Leader is picked, The Advisors need to sit down, and go over certain standards and concepts of what the Leader does.

A Leader of such should do some of the following:
1. Gain Information From Incident Commander, Or Advisor
2. Take That Information, And Let Their Juniors/Explorers Help
3. Not Only Listen to the Incident Commander, But also to any of the Higher Authorities.
4. Do Not Tell The Juniors/Explorers What to do, be respectful, and Ask Them
5. Use Radio Commands, if your permitted(two-way radio for all juniors, or Other Radioís)

1. Gain Information
This is the time to open your ears, and listen carefully to what the Incident Commander is telling you, as a Leader and Junior/Explorer what to do.
Make sure to have a clear understanding of what is being said, So the call runs smoother.2. Take That Information
The Information that is given to you by the Incident Commander or Or Advisor should now be told by you, The Leader, To Your Fellow Juniors/Explorers.
Once again, Make sure they have a clear understanding of what you are saying.3. Higher Authorities
Now, You have listened to your Incident Commander And Your Advisor. Now Itís time to also listen to your Higher Authorities.
This is mutal respect, More than likely, They have been doing this longer than you, And you as a Junior/Explorer, Are Here to help the FireFighters, And The Process go smoother. You As a Junior Help out a lot more by listening and conducting your operations, Than not listening at all.4. Ask, Donít Tell
You as leader, need to be respectful to everyone on scene and off scene.
This is a big problem, as when that adrenaline rushes, you feel as if you are on top of the world. You as leader need to ask the Juniors/Explorers to do something, Instead of telling them. Yes, You are a Leader, But You also are a Junior also.
Therefore, Be Respectful, and ask, not tell.
That way, Your Juniors look forward to the next call they go on with you!

5. Using Radio Commands
Okay, So now you are tied up running the pumper, or watching the water level on the tanker. This is the time to get a good clean practice in using radio commands.
Use Your Radio Commands as:
Explorer 100 to Explorer 101
Explorer 100 Go Ahead (response)
Explorer 101, I need you toÖ
Explorer 101 Copy (response)

Explorer 105 to Explorer Post
Explorer Post Ė Begin Rolling Hoses on Tanker 31.
Explorer 101 Copy
Explorer 102 Copy
Explorer 103 Copy
Explorer 104 Copy
Try not to use Ten Codes, As Many Of your Juniors may not understand them.
It may be a great training lesson though!

Behavior Outside the Fire Hall
You, as a Junior/Explorer of a Fire Department carry a reputation of your Fire hall Around.
For such instances, At School:
Write-Upís
Displinaries
Fights
Grades
Etc etc.
90% of Fire Departments that use the Junior/Explorer Program, Gives each Junior Member a Shirt/Full Uniform to Represent the Fire Department.
9/10 times, You, a Junior, Will wear the uniform/shirt outside of the Fire Hall.
Like said Above, At School, For Instance.

Wearing the unform/shirt in public viewing, Setís your rep at a high level.

Scenario:
Explorer goes to school wearing his Uniform to Show his buddies.
A Bully decides to make fun of him for wearing it to school.
Explorer then takes his anger out on him, And getís into a brawl with the Bully.

Explorer & Bully go to the office.
Principal says: Why Did you to fight?
Explorerís Response: He Made fun of me for wearing my Uniform
Principal: I see, What Fire Department Are you With?
Explorerís Response: Station 31 Maí Am
Principal: Oh, So Gord is the Chief up there correct?
Explorerís Response: Yes.
So On and So forth.
Coming down to it, The Principal knows your chief, In which know he knows the trouble you got into, And The Principal is giving you a deeper outlook now.
All in all, It gives your Fire Department a bad name when mis-behaving.
Even such things as cursing, tobacco use, tempers, etc etc.

So Be a good Explorer, And Do your Duties right, and With Respect.

Behavior inside the Fire Hall
You as a Junior/ Explorer has all rights to be in the Fire hall with certain rights and rules. Most Juniorís tend to misbehave inside the fire hall, Without the knowledge of him/her doing it.

Example:
Talking During A Meeting, Without Permission
Interrupting a High Authority when speaking
Bringing Outside food or drinks (unless permitted)
Talking during Training Sessions without Permissions

All These things and more, Are ways you misbehave inside the Fire Hall, Without the instance of you knowing it. No, It doesnít make your Fire Hall look bad, But it makes you, as a Leader, or an Explorer look bad.

Take your time to print out, or give each Junior/Explorer a Copy of the Events, Dates, Times, etc etc.

Even though they are all subject to change at any given moment, having this, will surely help you get your Juniorís where they need to be, when they need to be!

Planning Ė Seatment Arrangement
At this point in time, If you allow a ride-a-long service, or any other type of service that allows your squad to run emergency traffic on a call, Then this is the right section for you.

Create a Complete Seatment arrangement on your trucks and emergency vehicles.
Therefore, When rushing to the trucks on a call, They know where they need to sit, and where not to sit, To keep out of the way of the important business. Also, This insures no-one is left behind! As you create this arrangement, you should have enough room for all Junior Memberís, That way, they can all work as a team on a call!

Monthly Clean-up
You as a FireFighter, and an Advisor, Should know how fast the Fire Hall and the trucks dirties up over time. For this, Take 1-2 days a month and clean-up the trucks, and the Fire hall.

Split your Juniors into groups, Assigning different sections of the Fire hall to clean.
(It would also be a good idea to have 1 Advisor or FireFighter to each group for correct placement of things & questions by the explorerís)

As you have your Juniorís tidying up the firehall, Create 2 more groups of Juniors to wash/clean-out the trucks.

Once done with the following activities, Gather all your Squad, and Clean-up the Parking lot of the Fire Department as a Team!
You as an advisor can also make this into a great training session for the Juniorís. By creating scenarios to get to a piece of trash, or something of the like.

Keeping Up-To-Date
Create your Explorerís 3 Folderís Ė
Training
General Info
Certificates and Rewards
Under the Training Folder-
Keep the Explorerís training records and hours there. (Not as a team, but as an individual)

As I've written this myself. The Goal is to set forth good practices for the Leaders of the Junipr Program. (ex. Captian, Explorer Chief, Etc. etc.)

I wrote this up for the simple fact that in our fire department, Our Junior's didnt understand the leadership meant to be in the Junior Program.
So The true meaning of this, is to hopefully give Advisor's of the Junipr Program, And The Leaders of it, A simple guide on how to help with the leadership ethics.
Also, It tells a little bit about how the junior's can help, Rather than just on a call (ex. Cleaning up the Fire Hall).

Also, The first part is how the Leader can Conduct a meeting, As that might be helpful, and be a good experience for them.

Sorry if anyone don't understand it, Or don't like it, I just wrote it up for our Fire Department, So I figured Id post on here also.

1. Begin with the Pledge
2. Ask/Conduct a Prayer
3. Make sure all Fellow Members has Signed in
4. Start out by going over the minutes of your last meeting
5. Go Over any new Business you as a leader needs to conduct
6. Grant Permission To Your Advisors To Go Over any new business they have
7. Grant Permission for your Explorers/Juniors To Speak
8. Set Forth the Next Meeting/Training Date.See my link.

Begin With The Pledge
Whether a FireFighter or an Explorer, Starting off your meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance gives great respect to your country.You don't need to justify the pledge.

Ask/Conduct a Prayer
After the Pledge, Ask someone in your meeting room, or Conduct a prayer yourself. This is great moral respect, and gives hope & love to God when on a call.How about the Explorer Oath... Everyone ont eh Post may not practice the same religion(s) and you don't want to offend anyone.

Make Sure Fellow Members has signed in
Having a Sign-in Book Helps you and your advisors keep up with who all has attended the meetings. So Before beginning the minutes, Make sure everyone that has attended this meeting, Has signed in.
Going over Minutes of the Last Meeting
Begin the meeting by going over the minutes of your last meeting. As Some of your members may have been absent the last meeting, Keep them up to date. Also, This is a great reminder for all members. This will help your members remember important dates etc. (ex. Live Burns, Special Training, Courses, etc etc.)People will forget to sign in... Just have an advisor or explorer officer do a roll-call or take attendance. Minutes are important to keep up, though.

Go Over New Business (Leader)
As the Leader of your Post, If you should have any new business to be said, Such as: (New Members, Voting On New Members, etc etc.) This is the time to do it.

Go over New Business (Advisor)
This is the time to hand over the mic to your Advisor. As He/She may have more important business to go over. Lectures, Or Business said to him/her by your Chief. Your Advisor Does run this show, So give him/her the up most respect, and all the time he/she needs to finish.

Explorers/Juniors Permission to Speak:
To Conduct your meetings faster and better, Your Juniors should not speak until given the permission to. This is now the time to allow them to have a say so in any of the said business (Leader or Advisor), Conducted in this meeting. As itís their program, Let me have their time to speak in a reasonable manner, and time. (No Cussing, yelling, etc etc.)

Set Forth The Next Meeting/Training Date
This is time to remind all of your members when the next meeting/training date is.

Leadership On a Call

There are many possibilities that the advisors let the Juniors/Explorers Run Calls.
Many Leaders of The Program tend to get out of hand, and try to be the big boss.
When the Leader is picked, The Advisors need to sit down, and go over certain standards and concepts of what the Leader does.

A Leader of such should do some of the following:
1. Gain Information From Incident Commander, Or Advisor
2. Take That Information, And Let Their Juniors/Explorers Help
3. Not Only Listen to the Incident Commander, But also to any of the Higher Authorities.
4. Do Not Tell The Juniors/Explorers What to do, be respectful, and Ask Them
5. Use Radio Commands, if your permitted(two-way radio for all juniors, or Other Radioís)Listen to ALL advisors, ICs, Firefighters, etc.

1. Gain Information
This is the time to open your ears, and listen carefully to what the Incident Commander is telling you, as a Leader and Junior/Explorer what to do.
Make sure to have a clear understanding of what is being said, So the call runs smoother.2. Take That Information
The Information that is given to you by the Incident Commander or Or Advisor should now be told by you, The Leader, To Your Fellow Juniors/Explorers.
Once again, Make sure they have a clear understanding of what you are saying.3. Higher Authorities
Now, You have listened to your Incident Commander And Your Advisor. Now Itís time to also listen to your Higher Authorities.
This is mutal respect, More than likely, They have been doing this longer than you, And you as a Junior/Explorer, Are Here to help the FireFighters, And The Process go smoother. You As a Junior Help out a lot more by listening and conducting your operations, Than not listening at all.4. Ask, Donít Tell
You as leader, need to be respectful to everyone on scene and off scene.
This is a big problem, as when that adrenaline rushes, you feel as if you are on top of the world. You as leader need to ask the Juniors/Explorers to do something, Instead of telling them. Yes, You are a Leader, But You also are a Junior also.
Therefore, Be Respectful, and ask, not tell.
That way, Your Juniors look forward to the next call they go on with you!

Get rid of 1-4 here. You sound like you're trying to teach first graders how to talk and respect people. See my link... Explorers shouldn't need step by step instruction or a how to guide of how to respect and listen. Rather, explain the Chain of Command and make sure they understand they're at the bottom.

5. Using Radio Commands
Okay, So now you are tied up running the pumper, or watching the water level on the tanker. This is the time to get a good clean practice in using radio commands.
Use Your Radio Commands as:
Explorer 100 to Explorer 101
Explorer 100 Go Ahead (response)
Explorer 101, I need you toÖ
Explorer 101 Copy (response)

Explorer 105 to Explorer Post
Explorer Post Ė Begin Rolling Hoses on Tanker 31.
Explorer 101 Copy
Explorer 102 Copy
Explorer 103 Copy
Explorer 104 Copy
Try not to use Ten Codes, As Many Of your Juniors may not understand them.
It may be a great training lesson though!

You can shorten this up, a lot. And get rid of the 10-codes completely.

Behavior Outside the Fire Hall
You, as a Junior/Explorer of a Fire Department carry a reputation of your Fire hall Around.
For such instances, At School:
Write-Upís
Displinaries
Fights
Grades
Etc etc.
90% of Fire Departments that use the Junior/Explorer Program, Gives each Junior Member a Shirt/Full Uniform to Represent the Fire Department.
9/10 times, You, a Junior, Will wear the uniform/shirt outside of the Fire Hall.
Like said Above, At School, For Instance.

Wearing the unform/shirt in public viewing, Setís your rep at a high level.

Scenario:
Explorer goes to school wearing his Uniform to Show his buddies.
A Bully decides to make fun of him for wearing it to school.
Explorer then takes his anger out on him, And getís into a brawl with the Bully.

Explorer & Bully go to the office.
Principal says: Why Did you to fight?
Explorerís Response: He Made fun of me for wearing my Uniform
Principal: I see, What Fire Department Are you With?
Explorerís Response: Station 31 Maí Am
Principal: Oh, So Gord is the Chief up there correct?
Explorerís Response: Yes.
So On and So forth.
Coming down to it, The Principal knows your chief, In which know he knows the trouble you got into, And The Principal is giving you a deeper outlook now.
All in all, It gives your Fire Department a bad name when mis-behaving.
Even such things as cursing, tobacco use, tempers, etc etc.

See my link. This can be shortened up too... You don't need a step by step here, either.

So Be a good Explorer, And Do your Duties right, and With Respect.

Behavior inside the Fire Hall
You as a Junior/ Explorer has all rights to be in the Fire hall with certain rights and rules. Most Juniorís tend to misbehave inside the fire hall, Without the knowledge of him/her doing it.

It's a privelige, not a right, to be there.

Example:
Talking During A Meeting, Without Permission
Interrupting a High Authority when speaking
Bringing Outside food or drinks (unless permitted)
Talking during Training Sessions without Permissions

All These things and more, Are ways you misbehave inside the Fire Hall, Without the instance of you knowing it. No, It doesnít make your Fire Hall look bad, But it makes you, as a Leader, or an Explorer look bad.

Take your time to print out, or give each Junior/Explorer a Copy of the Events, Dates, Times, etc etc.

Even though they are all subject to change at any given moment, having this, will surely help you get your Juniorís where they need to be, when they need to be!

Planning Ė Seatment Arrangement
At this point in time, If you allow a ride-a-long service, or any other type of service that allows your squad to run emergency traffic on a call, Then this is the right section for you.

Create a Complete Seatment arrangement on your trucks and emergency vehicles.
Therefore, When rushing to the trucks on a call, They know where they need to sit, and where not to sit, To keep out of the way of the important business. Also, This insures no-one is left behind! As you create this arrangement, you should have enough room for all Junior Memberís, That way, they can all work as a team on a call!

Monthly Clean-up
You as a FireFighter, and an Advisor, Should know how fast the Fire Hall and the trucks dirties up over time. For this, Take 1-2 days a month and clean-up the trucks, and the Fire hall.

Split your Juniors into groups, Assigning different sections of the Fire hall to clean.
(It would also be a good idea to have 1 Advisor or FireFighter to each group for correct placement of things & questions by the explorerís)

As you have your Juniorís tidying up the firehall, Create 2 more groups of Juniors to wash/clean-out the trucks.

Once done with the following activities, Gather all your Squad, and Clean-up the Parking lot of the Fire Department as a Team!
You as an advisor can also make this into a great training session for the Juniorís. By creating scenarios to get to a piece of trash, or something of the like.

Keeping Up-To-Date
Create your Explorerís 3 Folderís Ė
Training
General Info
Certificates and Rewards
Under the Training Folder-
Keep the Explorerís training records and hours there. (Not as a team, but as an individual)

Under the Certificates & Rewards-
Keep the Explorerís Rewards and Certificates from the Fire Hall, Independent Study Coruses, Or any other of the like.

This is all I have at this very moment , I will hopefully update it soon!
Please, tell me your thoughts and opinions on this!

Thanks, Tyler Kanipe

Ignore all the edit marks... This is about a year old. I left the post since then, but we were in the middle of updating and re-doing out SOGs - Mainly re-writing and re-wording. But this is what I have to show as an example. But just to basically show you, this is how we did it. These were started rougly 10 years ago and have been expanded on since then.

I have many more comments, but don't have the time to go through everything. I hope you worked with a(n) advisor(s) to come up with this. They may take this as a slap in the face because if does seem you are telling them what their job is, in some cases, it seems. You seem derogatory in some cases. My link should help you... I hope.

I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish... I think I've read on here you're an explorer. So I'm not sure what your goal is with this... More info would help.

ummm.....yeahhhh. What ^^^he^^^ said.

Thanks for the link, And I have not talked it over with my advisors. Although, I have talked it over with my Chief.

I didnt read your leadership guide, but if there wasnt anything in that little gem about following the chain of command there needs to be. Dont overshoot your advisors and talk with the chief. While I'm sure the Chief has a large say in what the post or jr organization does, you need to follow the proper steps in order to get anything done. TRUST ME. Been there done that, learned my lesson.